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Anti-war Radical Leaves Jail After 6 Years

October 03, 1999|By From Tribune News Services.

FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS — Former anti-Vietnam War radical Katherine Ann Power, who spent 23 years underground, walked out of prison Saturday after serving six years for taking part in an armed robbery in which a police officer was killed.

Power said nothing to reporters as she left the prison. Her lawyer released a statement in which Power said she "will always carry my human responsibility" for her role in the death of Officer Walter Schroeder, father of nine.

Power was a 21-year-old Brandeis University student in 1970 when she and four others robbed a Boston bank to fund efforts against the Vietnam War. She was waiting in the getaway car when William "Lefty" Gilday shot Schroeder in the back.

Gilday, convicted of murder, was sentenced to life in prison.

Power took the alias Alice Metzinger, lived in women's communes, gave birth to a son and settled in Lebanon, Ore., where she married a bookkeeper, Ronley Duncan.

After beginning therapy for depression, she returned to Massachusetts in 1993, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a sentence of 8 to 12 years. She was released early.